previous to its
publication, had been written in the English language. Its
interest depends, not on its descriptive and narrative power,
but on character portrayal and humor.

Though both lovable girls, the two heroines, Elinor and
Marianne, are as imperfect and as different as sisters are apt
to be in real life. Vulgar match-making Mrs. Jennings, as Austin
Dobson calls her, like many a flesh-and-blood dowager, at first
repels us by her foolish prattle and finally wins our respect by
her kindness. Sir John Middleton, with his horror of being
alone; Lady Middleton, with her horror of impropriety; Miss
Steele, who can always be made happy by being teased about the
Doctor; Lucy Steele, pretty, clever, not over-fastidious in her
principles, and abominably weak in her grammar; Robert Ferrars,
whose airs are justly punished by his marriage to Lucy; Mrs.
Ferrars, who contrives to be uniformly unamiable; Mrs. John
Dashwood, fit daughter to such a mother; and Mr. John Dashwood,
fit husband to such a wife--together form a gallery of portraits
of which any author might be proud.

The book, too, is rich in humor. Among other delightful things
we read of a will which, like almost every other will, gave as
much disappointment as pleasure; of a child of three who
possesses the usual charms of that age, an imperfect
articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many
cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise; of apricot marmalade
applied successfully as a remedy for a bruised temple; of a
company who met to eat, drink, and laugh together, to play at
cards or consequences, or any other game that was sufficiently
noisy; of a husband who is always making remarks which his wife
considers so droll but cannot remember; of Constantia wine,
which is equally good for colicky gout and broken hearts; of a
face of strong natural sterling insignificance; of a girl who
was pleased that a man had called and still more pleased that
she had missed him; of a woman of few words, for, unlike people
in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas;
of a newspaper item that interested nobody except those who knew
its contents before; and of a man who was perfectly the
gentleman in his behavior to guests and only occasionally rude
to his wife and mother-in-law.

It is true that t